Absolutely brilliant! I like the idea of the shelf paper holding everything aligned while he builds it up. I'd like to figure out a way to do this in situ however and not, repeat NOT, have to remove all that kit decking. I was already thinking of drilling as many holes as possible through the kit deck under the Evergreen strips for lightening and air flow purposes. Maybe I can do the same thing he did but on the model using a low tack spray adhesive or something in place of the shelf paper then running thin plastic cement through the openings when it's done for a permanent bond.

The pool picture is exactly what I was saying regarding a "runner"! She looks really good without being overly delicate. Hake will have the correct weapons, reworked shears and reworked sail. From a few feet away, I dare say she'll look great. I'm really just hoping that she'll be a good operating little machine and provide many hours of fun!

Nice stuff, guys! Keep it coming!

B^)

wlambing,I agree with you although I will add some frilly, highly breakable, tick me off kind of details for Gato II. I did toughen this Gato up with some brass railing and will do that again.

This sub is a runner, I had to scale back the throttle to 50% because it was ready to hydroplane if I did not. As far as good operating, here are a couple more pictures. I am excited for you guys to see these subs come together! And Paul I really like the thought you have put into changing yours!

If you can cut, drill, saw, hit things and swear a lot, you're well on the way to building a working model sub.

Paul,For your filler withe cracked cap; if you can dig out the dried stuff with a knife or something, you can wrap the opening with a small piece of Saran, then screw the broken cap on over top to hold it in place.

This is my fisrt posting on my Gato build. My build is a little different from most since i bought a Gato used and it was partically started.My post is more of a lesson learned.I started with the drive shafts. In the pics which is dificult to see I am using cylindrical magnets ( 1/16 x 1/4 inch) drilled into the ends of the dog bones. In the brass coupler have installed 1/4 dia x 1/32 thick disks.I have learned that putting the drive shafts in is a pain, usally requiring the assistance of another person. So if the shaft can stand erect... You guys know the rest...

I have also learned:That this kits started out life as static models with some fair amount of detail.Some of that detail are deck mounted guns. I have attached magnets to hold them in place in a static condition (mostly), and removableas needed. Becasuse somtimes your boat gets run over. As you know if the gun goes for a swim its dayuum difficult to retrieve them(here gunny... here gunny... show you miserable lil expletives...).

Lesson #3:Sh*t happens!!!I place my parts.. the delicate ins in a plastic bag filled with air.After i did this the bag with the gun in it fell out of my hand and got the three foot drop test. It survived in tact!!!Boy was i sweating!!!

In between taking the last of the Christmas decorations off the house and going for a short, cold, spin on the motorcycle I managed to get some work done on Trigger this weekend.I needed to fix the pointy CT of Silversides to the rounded CT of Trigger so first thing to do was to lop off the offending bit of the resin piece and mate it up with the corresponding correctly shaped section from the kit part.

I wanted the cut as clean and straight as I could make but I can get kinda twitchy with power tools. Instead, I used sticky Dymo embossing tape as a straight edge then scribed the line in over and over till I worked through. It resulted in a very straight and clean cut.

This is a pretty good chunk of resin. It had warped a bit at some point after it's manufacture which is not uncommon. A soaking in hot water for 30 minutes or so then some time in my clamp rig made it better and though not perfect it is quite serviceable now.

In places the resin piece is SOLID. That makes it heavy, way heavier than the kit part. There has been much talk out there from others more knowledgeable than me of the great necessity of saving as much topside weight as possible so the surfaced trim will look accurate. With that in mind I attacked the piece as deeply as I dared, thinning as much resin as I felt I could with a router attachment on the Dremel.

Now that all the carving was done I felt it was safe to mate up the parts back into a complete tower ass end. (that's Navy lingo ya' know)The rod is spreading the walls of resin apart back to an accurate distance. An inward spring became apparent after the back was cut off.

The kit deck has a raised area for the kit CT. It is just in the way for mounting my resin sail so it had to go. I traced the profile then cut to the line with an appropriate bit. When I was done I installed a couple of 032 X 1/4" brass strips across the resulting hole so the resin CT wouldn't just plummet through. I can shim it if I need to when I get to the final installation but for now I can still work on it and the deck separately which will be very helpful when I get to re teaking the deck.

It's sits about right the way it is now. I am going to continue further working up the tower. I plan on installing all the major sturdy features and redoing the planking on the gun platforms as training to ready for the coming deck work. All the fiddly, delicate parts will wait till much father in the build.

Been dealing with camera issues again so no images. But I did manage to get the stern planes set up and test fit the prop shafts.

Regarding the rudder shaft, I've seen some utilize the kit shaft, while others have removed it and installed a brass shaft of smaller diameter. Any experienced feedback on which worked better, pros and cons, etc.?

Chagrined to report that nothing went on again at Harder's construction berth today. However, this definitely does not mean that all was quiet at the Porteous Boat Company yards this weekend! Interested parties can find out more by checking in at "Jeff Porteous's Repair Yard" in the SubRon5 section of the forum. Hope you enjoy!

JeffP

Sure writing is easy: just sit staring at a blank page until the drops of blood start forming on your forehead.